If you’re desirous about shopping for a VR headset to get your self prepared for Half-Life: Alyx later this 12 months, then you might have an interest to know that the HTC Vive Cosmos is at present on sale once more within the UK. It initially launched for £699 when it got here out final 12 months, however Amazon UK have now dropped the worth to £549, making it £50 cheaper than it was over Black Friday.
In case you’ve forgotten, the Vive Cosmos is HTC’s newest PC-based VR gaming headset. Not solely does it have a better decision show than the unique Vive and Vive Pro (1440×1700 per-eye in comparison with the Pro’s 1440×1600 per-eye decision), however it additionally doesn’t require any base stations for its movement monitoring. Instead, it has six sensors constructed into the headset itself which offer correct inside-out monitoring and six-degrees-of-freedom help. This means you can begin utilizing the Cosmos straight out of the field and get going quite a bit sooner than any of Vive’s earlier headsets.
Admittedly, the remainder of the Cosmos’ specs will likely be acquainted to current Vive customers – it nonetheless has a 90Hz refresh price, a most discipline of view of 110 levels and built-in headphones just like the Vive Pro – however the fewer plug sockets I would like to seek out in reverse corners of my room to ensure it really works, the higher I reckon.
I ought to level out that the Oculus Rift S remains to be fairly a bit cheaper than the Vive Cosmos, as you possibly can at present get one direct from Oculus for £399. Just just like the Cosmos, the Rift S doesn’t want any additional exterior monitoring sensors both, however the draw back is that its specs aren’t fairly as spectacular as its HTC rival. Indeed, the Rift S solely has a refresh price of 80Hz, and the decision of its show tops out at 2560×1440, which equates to 1440×1280 per-eye. It has a barely wider discipline of view at 115 levels, however doesn’t include any built-in headphones.
Then there’s the Oculus Quest to contemplate as nicely. This standalone VR headset received’t technically be suitable with Half-Life: Alyx straight out of the field, however so long as you’re ready to utilize Oculus’ Link function and run a cable out of your tetherless Quest to your PC, then you definately’ll nonetheless have the ability to use it for some Half-Life VR motion.
At time of writing, the Quest goes for £399 for the 64GB model and £499 for the top 128GB version. It additionally comes with all three episodes of Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series free of charge till the January 31st 2020.
Still, in the event you’re after the easiest PC-based VR headset round that doesn’t contain shelling out over a grand for one thing just like the Valve Index, then the Vive Cosmos is arguably the subsequent smartest thing.
